other and 3 inches apart measuring from out- 

 side to outside ; lay a third one against the 

 ends of these two, so that the three will form 

 three sides of a square, and with two ounce 

 tacks, put wire-cloth over them. Now turn 

 your cage over and tack wire-cloth on the 

 other side. You now have a cage ^H x 3 

 inches square with one end open. To close 

 the open end take the fourth piece of wood, 

 and cut a shoulder on each end so that the 

 shoulder will fit tightly between the side pieces. 

 Having put your queen into the cage press the 

 wires of one side of it slightly into the sealed 

 honey of one of the combs, and fasten it there 

 by 4 slender wooden pins about I l / 2 inches 

 long, 2 near the top and 2 near the bottom of 

 the cage, run through the meshes of the cage 

 and into the comb. One of each pair should 

 be slanted upward and the other downward, 

 ("are should be taken to have room for the 

 bees to pass between the cage and the comb 

 next to the one on which it is fastened. Green 

 wire-cloth must not be used, as I know to my 

 cost. M. Mahin. 



C. S. Schotield,Ind., wanted informa- 

 tion regarding the introduction of 

 virgin queens. 



E. J. Oatman, 111., had not been al- 

 ways successsful in introducing such. 

 During a honey flow, there is generally 

 little trouble. When there is no honey 

 secretion, he feeds a little, which les- 

 sens the hazard. 



The Secretary read an essay entitled 



Can Bee Culture be made Profitable ? 



Can bee-culture be made profitable ; if so 

 how ? Can a duck swim ; if so how ? would 

 be to me a parallel question. Like all other 

 pursuits, bee-culture will not manage itself, as 

 many who have undertaken it and failed, 

 know by sad and costly experience. But to 

 the one who means business and has the grit, 

 I say yes, most emphatically, and point you 

 to those who have become prominent by their 

 success. I refer to Capt. Hetherington, Julius 

 Hoffman, D. H. Van Alstine, L. C. Root, C. 

 C. Van Deusen, and others of my own imme- 

 diate neighborhood. There are many others 

 in the Mohawk Valley and elsewhere, but I 

 do not deem it necessary to name them. They 

 are well known to most of you. It is true we 

 know of none who have grown rich by this 

 business. There is too much work about bee- 

 keeping for a rich or a lazy man. 



Although the bees " work for nothing and 

 find themselves," a portion of the work which 

 they cannot do must be performed by the bee- 

 keeper. And here let me say that he who 

 makes bee- culture profitable must have the 

 same disposition to work that his bees have. 



To establish the fact that bee-culture can be 

 made profitable is our first point, but that fact 

 is pretty well proven already. To give the 

 reasons for failures to make it profitable is 



perhaps my best ground to work on, and I will 

 say here, and you are all ready to admit it, 

 that bees kept in the old-fashioned way can- 

 not be made profitable any longer: on the 

 contrary, every improvement which is found 

 after trial to be such, should be adopted. All 

 the means in our power to help the little fel- 

 lows along, should be employed ; and to ac- 

 complish this, we must first learn the business 

 ourselves, both theoretically and practically. 



To begin properly, get several good text- 

 books, and subscribe for some good periodi- 

 cals. Read them and get yourself full of the 

 subject, so that you think of bees the last thing 

 at night, the first thing in the morning and 

 through the day. If you do this you will get 

 some theory — perhaps too much. Now for 

 the practical part : go to some good bee-keeper 

 and hire yourself to him for a season, or if he 

 will not hire you, give him your services. (It 

 will pay in the end if you mean business). 

 After passing through this course you are 

 ready to try a few colonies on your own hook. 

 Let it be only a few at first and increase 

 only so fast as you are able to attend to them 

 thoroughly. Remember that a few colonies, 

 well kept, pay better than a good many half- 

 kept. Do not think, when the honey season 

 is over and you have harvested your crop, that 

 the work is done. Not so ; you must think 

 and study and work for next season. A good 

 and successful bee-keeper is one season ahead 

 all the time, with his work, and no one can 

 calculate his success by one season — take the 

 average for five at least. 



Bee-culture to be made remunerative must 

 not be made a side issue. It must be the first 

 business of the proprietor, and he must not 

 have too many " irons in the fire " to divide 

 his time and thought. The bee-keeper must 

 not only work with his hands but also with 

 his brain. Calculation must be made in win- 

 ter for the following spring and summer. It 

 would be well to lay out a definite or system- 

 atic plan. This being done, make all the 

 necessary preparations in winter. 



A good location has everything to do with 

 making bee-culture profitable, and by a good 

 location I mean not only that bee-pasturage 

 must be abundant, one crop succeeding an- 

 other through the season, but that the apiary 

 should be located in a favorable spot. A hill- 

 side sloping to the south-east is very desirable. 

 Protection from high winds is a great neces- 

 sity. In fact, success in wintering in northern 

 latitudes depends largely upon a warm and 

 sheltered position for the apiary. 



Canajoharie, N. Y. J. H. Nellis. 



Mr. Heddon, Michigan, thought bee- 

 keeping, to become profitable, must 

 eventually be concentrated in the hands 

 of specialists; that farming and bee- 

 keeping did not assimilate as much 

 as carpentering and bee-keeping ; that 

 times were not going to become better 



